Christmastime is here!

It's Christmastime, and like everyone else, we have been super busy around here! Here's our latest round of pictures:

Saturday marked the second anniversary of the day we brought the girls home from the NICU.  I can think of few things more terrifying and yet more wonderful than bringing home two tiny preemie twins at long last. At the time of this picture, Tamsie would have been a little over 5 lbs and Evie was still a little under. And that's T on the left and E on the right, for those keeping track.

They've grown a bit since that last picture, haven't they? Here they are at Costco, which just so happens to be one of their favorite places on earth. They even like to push their little baskets around at home and pretend to go shopping at Costco! It is one seriously magical place, y'all.

They were annoyed at my photog attempts at this point, but they were just so cute I couldn't help myself. I think E was in the middle of saying, "Stop it, Mom," when I took this picture. Oh well, they'll thank me one day, right? :)

I asked them what they were doing. "We're feeding the Christmas tree!" said T. 

Tamsie's favorite ornament this year, besides her cupcake ornament from YaYa and Minnie Mouse ornament, is a Starbucks cup that Carissa gave me several years ago. I'm pretty sure that's what she's pointing to here.

One of their favorite things to do is to gaze at the Christmas tree. One of my favorite things to do is to watch them enjoy it.

Evie loves all the stuffed animals that comprise about 90% of the ornaments she can reach. I figure those are the safest things to hang at their level!

Waiting on dinner to be served at the kiddiest of tables at Uncle Myron and Aunt Lauren's Thanksgiving celebration. This was actually one of two kiddie tables! This Thanksgiving was very different, since it was the first one in my 30 years I haven't spent at Grandma's house, but my aunt and uncle did an excellent job carrying on the tradition! Later on we went to Jennifer and Tyler's and had fun visiting with Chris's side of the family.

I'd been out running errands one day during the girls' naptime, and when I came home, I couldn't find Chris anywhere. I stepped into the nursery, and this is what I found. :)

Absolutely fascinated by the displays at the mall -- cheap holiday entertainment, which was all fun and games until Evie fell in a box of ornaments at Macys! Fortunately, she emerged with only a few scratches.

We replaced our old tree with my Grandma's tree this year. This angel graced the top of her tree for years and years, and this year we have adopted it as our own. We miss my precious Grandma so much! The holiday season was by far her favorite time of the year, and she always went all out decorating for it -- which makes sense because she used to decorate big department store windows downtown back in her day!

YaYa came and stayed with us during Thanksgiving, and we really loved getting to spend time with her! :)

Our tree. Notice T and E's various toys everywhere. It's hilarious that I ever thought that we would be able to keep toys out of the living room! 

Tamsie and Evangelyn wore some of my old Christmas dresses to church a couple of weeks ago.

Evangelyn

Tamsie

I found them this felt tree at Target, and decorating it has been one of their favorite pastimes.

They get so proud of themselves, and it's fun to listen to their little conversations as they work on it.

Teamwork!

Tamsie the Elf Fashionista

Evie thinks that not touching the tree is SO overrated.

They have a way of making everything extra-magical this year. :)

Evie's selfie

She was loving watching herself in the camera!

Giggle boxes!

Singing their version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" as I showed them a book/sang it with them

T is partial to "fiiiiiive golden rings!!!"

Spontaneously holding hands at breakfast

This melts my heart every time it happens.

During last week's "ice storm," I couldn't help but think the trees outside must be quite jealous of our cozy Christmas tree! I mean, aside from the fact that it's not real and all. :)

Chris rearranges our stocking holders just to spite me when I'm not paying attention. 

We took the girls for brunch at Cafe Eclectic last Saturday. It was a HUGE hit. I always think they are such fans of breakfast food because of all the Wild Eggs I consumed while pregnant with them! Oh how I miss me some Wild Eggs!

Our Jesse Tree as of last week. If you're not sure what a Jesse Tree is, here's a great video about it! 

You never know what the nativity set will look like at any given moment, but the girls love rearranging everything!

Tamsie refers to this as the "garbage truck."

Evangelyn saw this picture of Jesus in the manger in one of their books and exclaimed, "Baby's taking a bath!"

Tonight we drove them around to look at lights, and when we came home, we told them they could watch their current favorite, A Charlie Brown Christmas, so they hopped onto the couch and watched it -- for all of about 5 minutes, and then they were off playing with their books again!

There is nothing like being around a couple of two-year olds at Christmas. Everything is so new to them, and even though much of it doesn't make a lot of sense to them yet, they're enchanted by it all. We are loving starting new traditions with them that we hope will come to mean so very much to them as the years go by.